Linda Rooneyhttps://lindarooney.com
Online Marketing StrategistTue, 02 Feb 2016 23:25:34 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.10https://lindarooney.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/cropped-SM-Rubiks-Cube-512x512-2-32x32.jpgLinda Rooneyhttps://lindarooney.com
323243906770What Kind of Content Should You Create?https://lindarooney.com/what-kind-content-should-create/
https://lindarooney.com/what-kind-content-should-create/#respondTue, 02 Feb 2016 23:25:34 +0000https://lindarooney.com/?p=5233The holidays are long behind us. What’s more, Punxsutawney Phil let it be known today that it’s going to be a short winter. Spring is on its way. Looks like we’re all out of excuses for failing to create valuable content. We’d better get on that. But … What Kind of Content Should You Create? Your focus […]

]]>The holidays are long behind us. What’s more, Punxsutawney Phil let it be known today that it’s going to be a short winter. Spring is on its way. Looks like we’re all out of excuses for failing to create valuable content. We’d better get on that. But …

What Kind of Content Should You Create?

Your focus depends on whether you are a B2B (business-to-business) or B2C (business-to-consumer) concern. Fellow writers, we are solidly B2C (unless you’re writing business books). Common to both, however, is this: Writing is a business. And if you want to connect with your intended audience, you should be creating content on a regular basis and connecting with that audience in every way possible.

One part of your audience includes other writers, agents, editors, and those in various aspects of the publishing industry (it’s about the networking, people!). The other part is readers in your genre. If you’re already published — whether traditionally, indie, or self-published — you likely have some readers, and Lord knows you want more of them. If you’re in the as-yet-unpublished category, you need to start connecting with potential readers now, before you are published.

The infographic below is a terrific guideline for deciding which tactics you should be using. Whatever you do, don’t — let me repeat, do not — jump in and attempt every single one right off the bat. Pick one and learn everything you can about it. Get good at it. Become consistent with it. My recommendation is to start with a WordPress blog. There are a couple of good reasons for this:

Your WordPress blog is both a website and a blog, all in one place.

You never want your blog readers to have to wander away from the cozy confines of your delightful blog out into the cold, dark interwebz to visit your website. You don’t send the most important person in your (writing) life out to cruise the dive bars of cyberspace! They could get lost and never find their way back to you. Avoid this tragedy. Feather a comfy little nest for them to visit, have a cup of tea or a cocktail, enjoy your writing and learn more about you.

You own and control your blog and everything on it.

Your blog is the hub of your online presence. You create a blog post and — voila! — you now also have a Facebook post, a tweet, a Google+ post, a LinkedIn post, and numerous others through the miracle of cross-posting. Oh, that’s right, you’re not on those platforms yet … because I told you not to jump into the deep end before you knew how to swim. Good, I’m glad you were listening. But here’s the thing: When you do get going on those platforms, you’re going to be able to take those blog posts and cross-post them to your other places on the web … so that even if Facebook blows up your page, or LinkedIn becomes unlinked from our universe, or some other cosmic calamity causes your social media account to be lost forever, you’ve still got your blog.

Words to remember: Your blog is forever. Make it the home of everything important that you create for the web.

Start with your blog and build your online presence piece by piece.

Chances are, you’re one of the one-billion-plus people who have a Facebook profile This is a nice way to stay in touch with your old school chums and those relatives you’d rather not see beyond weddings and holidays. But for your business? You’re going to want to have a Facebook page. That differs from a Facebook profile in several significant ways, which we will go into in a future blog post.

Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and all the rest? Each has its own merits. Yup, sounds like another blog post coming on.

To make sure you don’t miss these and other posts that can help you be a better self-marketer, be sure to subscribe to receive notifications of future blog posts by using the box at the top of the right-hand column.

]]>https://lindarooney.com/what-kind-content-should-create/feed/05233Social Media Image Sizes 2016https://lindarooney.com/social-media-image-sizes-2016/
https://lindarooney.com/social-media-image-sizes-2016/#respondTue, 15 Dec 2015 16:52:55 +0000https://lindarooney.com/?p=5220You know the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? Well, sometimes things just change, period. And in the world of social media, whether you use it for marketing or just keeping in touch with friends and family, it’s a whole lot easier if you have a cheat sheet to […]

]]>You know the old saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? Well, sometimes things just change, period. And in the world of social media, whether you use it for marketing or just keeping in touch with friends and family, it’s a whole lot easier if you have a cheat sheet to refer to when it comes to acceptable and recommended social media image sizes.

Ta-da! Thanks to the good folks at SLR Lounge (a photo site my photographer hubby and I like), you now have one.

(NOTE: There is one change to this infographic you should be aware of. Instagram image size used to be 640px by 640px but in July 2015 switched to 1080px by 1080px to keep up with Retina and other high resolution displays available on smartphones, tablets and laptops.)

]]>https://lindarooney.com/social-media-image-sizes-2016/feed/05220Facebook Apocalypsehttps://lindarooney.com/facebook-apocalypse/
https://lindarooney.com/facebook-apocalypse/#respondTue, 29 Sep 2015 13:00:37 +0000https://lindarooney.com/?p=5039It’s happening again. It rears its ugly head every couple of months or so (since 2012!), and … It’s baaaaaccckkkk! You may have seen a Facebook “privacy notice” creep into your Facebook timeline in the last couple of days. One or two or twenty of your friends have posted it, staking their claim to ownership of their […]

]]>It’s happening again. It rears its ugly head every couple of months or so (since 2012!), and … It’s baaaaaccckkkk!

You may have seen a Facebook “privacy notice” creep into your Facebook timeline in the last couple of days. One or two or twenty of your friends have posted it, staking their claim to ownership of their “stuff” and warning Facebook of the dire consequences of breaching the moat.

It probably looks something like this:

“As of ___, 2015 at ___ a.m. Eastern standard time, I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, or posts, both past and future. By this statement I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute or take any other action against me based on this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308-11 308-103 and Rome statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. If you do not publish this statement at least once it will be tactically allowing the use of your photos, as well as information contained in the profile status updates. DO NOT SHARE. You MUST copy and paste!”

Because people are cutting-and-pasting it as a status, it’s proliferating like crazy. As it always does.

And it’s a hoax. As it always is.

As I have told countless participants in my workshops and classes: You may “own” your words (and you do, unless you specifically give up your rights to another person or entity), but you also agreed to give Facebook “a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook,” according to the company’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This means Facebook can use anything you post on their site. So that little cut-and-paste job you were considering? Don’t bother. It won’t have any effect on the Terms of Service to which you have agreed.

Not crazy about that? What’s a body to do? Well, you can …

Not sign up for a Facebook account in the first place (oops, too late)

Ask Facebook to amend its policies (did I already wish you good luck?)

Delete the content you don’t want Facebook to be able to use (not always a fail-safe, as this article explains)

Delete your Facebook account (slight problem: if “your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it,” it’s still available for Facebook’s use, you just won’t be around to know if it’s happening)

Look, friend: First of all, you must be aware that your privacy ended the very day you created a profile on Facebook. That is, after all, why you joined Facebook in the first place: so that whatever you post will be shared, tagged, copied, and posted elsewhere … because your life is JUST THAT FREAKING FASCINATING.

But while we’re on social media misconceptions, there’s something I think is a lot more important than Facebook borrowing your priceless cat videos for its own nefarious purposes, and that is to remember this:

No social media platform is a safe repository of anything you intend to have and to hold ’til death do you part. If social media is the only place you post, you run the risk of that platform no longer being there someday. And once it’s gone, all your lovely words (and pictures, videos, and, yes, your clever little memes) will be gone with it. So, if you’re using Facebook, LinkedIn, or anything of the kind as a lazy (wo)man’s blog, I have just two words for you: Please don’t.

My recommendation? Start your blog today. Cross-post to social media if you’d like (I recommend it), but know that social media is no substitute for a website/blog you own and control.

Anyway, here’s the warning you really should be posting to your wall … you know, as a public service, and all.

Seriously. Save yourself. Save your friends and family … from the Facebook Apocalypse.